In this episode, I sit down with my wonderful dance teachers, Aaron and Gabriela from Salsa Oconee, to explore how following your joy can transform not just your Tuesday nights, but your entire relationship with yourself and your community.

What We Talk About

The Dance Journey

• How Gabriela rediscovered her love of dance through Zumba and pushed through the terror of not being able to do a single turn
• Aaron's origin story: from being too uncoordinated to dance at junior prom to proving his Panamanian cousins wrong
• The moment Aaron finally said yes to bringing salsa to Oconee County (spoiler: Gabriela didn't give him time to change his mind)

What Dance Teaches Us Beyond the Steps

• Why dance is the ultimate practice in healthy masculinity and feminine trust
• How the panic of "I should already know this" shows up on the dance floor AND in life
• The difference between toxic and healthy assertion (and how leading in dance taught Aaron the difference)
• Why creating safe, boundaried spaces for expression matters more than ever

Building Community Through Joy

• How Salsa Oconee became an answer to prayer and softened a skeptical heart
• The moment it went from "this will last three weeks" to "wait, I have eight dance children now"
• Why devoting yourself to what brings you joy—even without a plan—creates purpose you never saw coming
• Finding your people in the most unexpected places (yes, even in Oconee County)

Real Talk

• What it's actually like to practice a "romantic" routine (hint: lots of "I hate you" and "your foot is wrong")
• Why the unsexy technical moments create the magic everyone sees
• How dance becomes a fountain of youth and why older dancers are goals
• The importance of making mistakes and getting comfortable with not knowing

Quotable Moments

"For these three minutes, you gotta trust me."

"We manifest many of the things that we are when we dance."

"When you follow joy and that path laid out for you from God, from the divine, whatever you want to call it, good things do happen."

"It is so good for the soul to have an art."

Want to join us? Salsa Oconee meets every Thursday at 7 PM at the Oconee Heritage Center (113 W. Main Street, Walhalla).

No partner needed. No experience required. Just show up and let yourself follow the joy.

Guest: Joanne Starkman, Founder of Innersense Organic Beauty

Episode Theme: Living on passion without a roadmap

Episode Highlights

Join Chloé as she kicks off Season 12 with an inspiring conversation with Joanne Starkman, the visionary behind Innersense Organic Beauty. This deeply personal episode explores the intersection of wellness, self-love, and the unexpected paths that lead us to our purpose.

Key Topics:

• How a daughter's rare genetic diagnosis sparked a clean beauty revolution
• The powerful connection between hair health and nervous system awareness
• Why the mirror is one of the most powerful places for self-reflection
• Building a business partnership with your spouse while staying mission-driven
• The importance of treating your hair as a living extension of yourself

Memorable Moments:

• Joanne shares how her daughter Morgan, diagnosed with Williams syndrome at 22 months, became the inspiration for creating truly clean hair products
• The shocking discovery about ingredient quality in beauty products (hint: not all shea butter is created equal)
• Why Joanne sees hair as "antennae" with its own blood supply and nervous system connection
• Morgan's current role as "Director of Joy" at Innersense headquarters

Wellness Practices Discussed:

• Meditation and presence
• Infrared sauna
• Dry brushing and lymphatic movement
• Sound baths
• Being in nature

Product Recommendations for Curly Hair:

• Clarity Hair Bath & Conditioner
• Sweet Spirit Leave-In Conditioner
• Quiet Calm Styling Cream (perfect for air-drying)
• New Repair Mask (natural bond builder)

Joanne's Message: "You are perfect, whole, and complete exactly the way you are right now. You don't need to change yourself in any way. Just show up and love yourself."

Connect with Innersense: Follow the brand for clean, intentional hair care with inspirational "inter-flections" on every bottle

Moment of Flow: A powerful poem about the curly hair journey - from childhood trauma to radical self-acceptance

This episode airs on the Winter Solstice, making Joanne's message of self-love and releasing expectations perfectly timed for the season.

What happens when you discover that the "maybe" you've been holding onto for years is actually the thing keeping you small in every area of your life?

In this deeply vulnerable solo episode, host Chloé Cofresí shares one of the most significant perspective shifts of her life: the decision to definitively say no to motherhood—not from fear, but from alignment with her optimal design.

Through muscle testing work with her practitioner Ana, Chloé discovered she was one of the 80% not optimally designed for parenthood. But more importantly, she realized that waiting to "no longer be alone" and holding space for the possibility of motherhood was keeping her from fully stepping into her writing, her business, her art, and even her readiness for the sacred partnership she desires.

This episode chronicles Chloé's complex journey—from teenage observations of exhausted parents, through a marriage where she adopted someone else's reasons, to tying her tubes out of fear after divorce, to reversing that surgery, to finally arriving at a choice made from knowing rather than fear.

Key Moments
The Revelation - How muscle testing revealed that waiting for partnership before taking action was keeping Chloé small in her writing, performing, and business

The Maybe That Was Killing Her - Realizing that the uncertainty around motherhood was affecting every other area of life and ambition

The 20% Concept - Understanding that only 20% of people are optimally designed for parenthood, and what that means for individuals and communities

Joey's Wisdom - Her cousin's profound insight after watching her play: "You already answered this seven years ago. You're a storyteller. Be the mama to everybody by telling the stories."

The Unlocking - How making a definitive choice opened up her business (after 2 years of struggling), her writing, and her entire life path

From Fear to Alignment - The difference between decisions made from trauma and PTSD versus decisions made from optimal design

About the Host
Chloé Cofresí is a storyteller, playwright, Brazilian lymphatic drainage practitioner, and the creator of BEAM&Flow—a framework for aligning Body, Energy, Awareness, and Movement. She's the writer and star of "La hija del pirata/The Pirate's Daughter," a play about five generations of women descended from Roberto Cofresí, the famous Puerto Rican pirate. After years in New York, she now lives in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Seneca, South Carolina, where she's building her online coaching practice teaching women hormone optimization, lymphatic drainage, and nervous system work.

Content Note: This episode discusses the deeply personal decision not to have children, tubal ligation and reversal, divorce, childhood trauma, and complex feelings around motherhood. Chloé shares with tremendous vulnerability and invites listeners into their own exploration of optimal design.

#PerspectiveShift #OptimalDesign #ChildfreeByChoice #Motherhood #MuscleTestinng #AuthenticLiving #LegacyBeyondChildren #Storyteller #VulnerableLeadership #WomensEmpowerment #LifeByDesign #AlignmentOverExpectation #CreativeLife #PuertoRican #PlaywrightLife

What happens when you retire from 22 years of cocktail waitressing, move to rural South Carolina, and realize you've never baked anything in your life? For Odette Ceriola Orola, it became the foundation of something extraordinary.

In this deeply authentic conversation, host Chloé sits down with Odette, the force behind Odette's Bakery & Wellness Supply Center in Seneca, South Carolina. From her first terrible blueberry muffin to building a thriving community destination that went from 28 followers to nearly 3,600 in less than a year, Odette's story is a masterclass in intentional transformation and trusting the process.

Key Moments

The Pivot Point - How one question from her partner Henry ("Why do you go to work and have to ask to be off?") sparked Odette to put in her two weeks notice without a plan

Building Anyway - Odette's philosophy: "Regardless of what's happening, whether you're angry, you're sad, you're not feeling well, you have no support, you feel like you've been defeated, build anyway"

The Power of Asking - "How can I turn my business into a tree?" - Odette's vision for creating something that benefits her entire community, not just herself

Learning at Any Age - From never having baked anything to selling out sourdough brownies every weekend, all while allowing ego to step aside

Manifesting Community - Opening with one table in 30-degree weather with no menu, no plan, just cinnamon rolls and trust

Quotable Moments

"Change always comes with chaos. So go with it. Go with it as much as you can."

"It's always your moment. Take a breath, get out of the back of your head and put it in the front, ground yourself."

"Ask good questions. Ask really, really good, detailed questions and be open to anything that comes to you that's gonna benefit you."

About the Guest

Odette Orola is the founder of Odette's Bakery & Wellness Supply Center in Seneca, South Carolina. After retiring from the cocktail industry, she taught herself to bake by watching The Great British Baking Show and built a thriving weekend destination known for sourdough baked goods (especially those famous brownies) and curated wellness products. She's also an avid poker player with her sights set on winning the World Series of Poker.

Find Odette's Bakery in Seneca, SC - open weekends, featuring rotating food vendors, dill pickle lemonade, and a community that feels like coming home.

Episode Theme: Perspective Shifts & Vision Season: Season [X] Guest: Odette Sirola Oola Location: Odette's Bakery & Wellness Supply Center, Seneca, SC

#PerspectiveShift #SmallBusiness #BakeryLife #CommunityBuilding #IntentionalLiving #SourdoughBaking #WellnessJourney #SouthCarolina #Entrepreneurship #SecondAct

Retry

Claude can make mistakes.
Please double-check responses.

In this deeply transformative conversation, Chloé sits down with healing facilitator Ana Pereira to explore the art and science of muscle testing, the nature of true healing, and what it means to become authentically yourself.

Key Topics Covered:

Muscle Testing Fundamentals

• The ARIRA framework: Ask, Receive, Interpret, Register, Apply
• Common mistakes beginners make and how to avoid them
• The importance of asking the right questions to the right "field"
• Why food is challenging to muscle test and how programming interferes

Redefining Healing

• Ana's definition of healing as deconstruction rather than fixing
• The concept of being "completely done with healing"
• Moving beyond victim consciousness while acknowledging real harm
• The surgical precision required for effective healing work

Algorithms & True Nature

• How detrimental "algorithms" and "selves" run automatically from childhood
• The difference between beneficial and harmful programming
• Changing congruencies to align with your authentic self
• Using statements as tools for integration

The Deep Work

• Why healing requires looking at "all the dark rooms" within yourself
• The relationship between love, truth, and authentic transformation
• Moving beyond spiritual bypassing toward genuine growth
• A live example of intuitive healing work in action

Connect with Ana: Email: ana@energywithanna.com Note: Ana's practice is currently full, but you can reach out as openings may become available.

This episode demonstrates how healing work can get "really deep, really fast" and offers practical tools for anyone interested in authentic self-discovery and precise healing methodologies.

Content Warning: This episode includes discussion of religious trauma and goes into deeper therapeutic territory toward the end.

In this season premiere, Chloé sits down with Dr. Samantha Slotnick, a behavioral optometrist who approaches vision care through the lens of trauma, safety, and whole-body integration. What started as a referral to address Chloé's persistent neck tension became a profound exploration of how our visual system reflects and reinforces our deepest patterns of protection and perception.

Dr. Slotnick shares her revolutionary approach that asks not "how clearly can you see?" but "how safe do you feel to see?" This conversation will challenge everything you thought you knew about eye care and open your eyes to the intricate connections between vision, trauma, and feeling safe in your own body.

In This Episode:

The Revolutionary Approach to Vision Care

• Why Dr. Slotnick considers herself a "medium" using optometric knowledge
• How behavioral optometry differs radically from traditional eye exams
• The concept of prescribing for potential rather than perfect clarity

Vision as a Safety System

• How trauma shapes our visual field and movement patterns
• Why some people unconsciously limit their peripheral vision
• The connection between high ACE scores and visual processing

The Sternocleidomastoid Connection

• How neck tension relates to visual engagement with the environment
• Why this muscle is crucial for survival and environmental scanning
• The link between head positioning and feeling safe to see

Beyond 20/20 Vision

• Why "perfect" prescriptions can sometimes cause more problems
• How weaker prescriptions can reduce headaches and eye strain
• The concept of visual "graph paper" between your two eyes

The Integration Journey

• How vision therapy works like "marriage counseling for wayward eyes"
• The connection to counter-strain therapy and somatic release
• Building networks of trauma-informed practitioners

Key Quotes

"The purpose of this lens for you—it's not to see more clearly. It's for you to feel safe so that you can see what you're ready to see."

"How we move through space is very much informed by the world we perceive, and how we manage our emotions in our inner world tends to inform whether we feel safe to move openly, or whether we are on alert."

"I cannot write the prescription that I measure for a person and expect them to make progress. If I want to move you towards a space in the future, I need to write a new potential for you."

Connect with Dr. Slotnick:

• Website: drslotnick.com

Resources Mentioned

• PRI (Postural Restoration Institute) - Mentioned as background for understanding body asymmetries
• Neil Hallinan - PRI practitioner who referred Chloé
• Dr. Miho Urasaka - Physical therapist specializing in counter-strain therapy

Takeaways for Your Journey

1. Question Your Vision Care: Traditional eye exams may not address how your visual system integrates with your whole-body experience
2. Consider Your Safety System: Notice how stress and hypervigilance might be affecting your visual field and peripheral awareness
3. Explore Body Connections: Persistent physical tension (like neck pain) might have visual or sensory components
4. Seek Integrated Care: Look for practitioners who consider trauma, nervous system regulation, and whole-body patterns
5. Trust Your Process: Sometimes "perfect" isn't the goal—feeling safe and integrated matters more than technical perfection

Stay tuned for upcoming episodes this season where we'll continue exploring the many ways we can shift our vision & persepctive.

If you've ever felt trapped in a "successful" life that doesn't feel like yours, this conversation will be your wake-up call. Anna Robinson shares the raw, transformative journey of dismantling a mind-led existence to build a life that actually serves your soul.

You'll walk away with:

• Permission to question everything you thought you "should" want
• Tools for distinguishing between heart wisdom and mental chatter
• A deeper understanding of why feeling your pain is the gateway to joy
• Practical ways to use ritual and writing as healing anchors

🔥 The Heart of the Conversation

Anna doesn't just talk about transformation—she's lived it. After a pivotal moment on a park bench, she made the radical choice to leave her marriage, home, and career to rebuild from a place of authentic truth. This isn't another "follow your bliss" story—it's a masterclass in the courage required to feel everything and choose yourself anyway.

Core Themes:

• The Great Unraveling: How a single moment of clarity can shatter everything you thought you knew
• Heart vs. Mind Leadership: Why our culture's obsession with mental solutions keeps us stuck
• Sacred Rebellion: Choosing truth over comfort, even when it looks "crazy" to others
• Embodied Healing: Moving beyond spiritual bypassing into real, felt transformation

🎯 Key Insights

On the 7-Year Cycle Mystery: Anna reveals both the spiritual and scientific truth behind cellular regeneration—every seven years, you literally become a new person. This isn't metaphor; it's biology meeting soul wisdom.

On Why "Love and Light" Isn't Enough: "We cannot selectively numb. If we avoid our pain, we also avoid our joy." Anna dismantles the toxic positivity that keeps us spiritually immature.

On Tea as Medicine: This isn't about tea ceremony—it's about creating sacred containers for your nervous system to remember safety and presence.

On Writing as Spiritual Practice: Journaling becomes a direct channel to truth when you stop trying to "figure it out" and start letting wisdom move through you.

If you're resonating with Anna's story, you're likely in your own season of questioning. This episode isn't just entertainment—it's a transmission. Let it remind you that:

• Your dissatisfaction with "having it all" isn't ungrateful—it's your soul calling you home
• The path of the heart requires courage, not just good intentions
• True healing happens in relationship, not isolation
• You don't need to have it all figured out to take the next right step

🎧 Listen & Connect

Available on: [Spotify] • [Apple Podcasts] • [YouTube]

Want to go deeper? Watch Anna's full Rooted Ceremony on YouTube

Connect with Anna Robinson: Instagram

💌 A Personal Note

If you're feeling the call to live more authentically, start small. One honest conversation. One moment of choosing truth over comfort. One practice that honors your soul's wisdom.

The path of the heart isn't easy, but as Anna shows us, it's the only path that leads home.

What resonated most with you from this episode? Share your insights in the comments or tag us in your stories—I love hearing how these conversations land in your world.

Guest: Dorie Chauncy, Health Coach & Rooted Summit Guide

Episode Overview

What happens when your boundaries crumble & you find yourself repeating old patterns? In this vulnerable & powerful conversation, Chloé & health coach Dorie explore the intersection of boundaries, sexual healing, & true body wisdom. From dating disasters to breakthrough healing modalities, this episode offers hope & practical tools for anyone struggling to feel safe and sovereign in their own skin.

Perfect for: Anyone healing from sexual trauma, those struggling with boundaries in relationships, people feeling disconnected from their bodies, & anyone curious about the deeper emotional layers of health & wellness.

Memorable Quotes

"When you're treating your body well, it's easier to look at the underlying emotions behind our actions."

"If you do all the healing modalities but still don't feel at home in your body, you've missed the point."

"My wishy-washy boundaries were reflected back to me in his actions."

"Most people come to me to lose weight, & most of the time it's emotional and spiritual weight that's actually needing to be shed."

🎯 Core Topics Covered:

Personal Healing Stories:

• Chloé's vulnerable sharing about moving to NC & boundary violations
• The pattern of hearing what we want to hear in relationships
• How boundary issues show up in dating and intimate relationships
• The journey from sexual numbness back to embodied pleasure

Trauma & Healing Modalities:

• Working with cutting-edge physical & neurological trauma treatments
• Understanding "coherence" patterns from childhood sexual trauma
• The role of somatic practices in healing sexual trauma
• Pelvic floor work & its connection to emotional healing

Practical Body Wisdom:

• Using crystal wands for pelvic floor release and healing
• The relationship between emotional safety and sexual expression

Health Coaching Philosophy:

• Why emotional & spiritual weight often underlies physical weight
• Starting with what's important to you vs. biohacking overwhelm
• Building sustainable health practices through small, consistent choices
• The importance of protein & functional movement

About Dorie's Work

Dorie Chauncy is a health coach who understands that true wellness goes far beyond diet and exercise. She works with clients to uncover the emotional & spiritual layers beneath physical symptoms, helping them build sustainable health practices that honor their whole being. Her approach combines practical nutrition & movement guidance with deep emotional and somatic awareness.

Connect with Dorie

• Website: rebalancebydorie.com
• Instagram: @rebalancebydorie
• Workshop: Available through the Rooted Summit (www.rootedsummit.love)

Trigger Warning & Support

This episode contains discussions of sexual trauma, boundary violations, and intimate healing work. If you're triggered by any content, please reach out to a trusted friend, therapist, or crisis support line. Healing is possible, and you don't have to do it alone.

About The BEAM&Flow Podcast

Join host Chloé for raw, honest conversations about the messy, beautiful journey of coming home to yourself. Each episode offers vulnerable sharing, practical tools, & the reminder that you're not alone in your healing.

Subscribe to never miss these important conversations & share with someone who needs to hear that healing is possible.